View and vote on the article here: Let's Talk: Interview with sefo
Let's Talk: Interview with sefo| Category | | | Summary | Hi sefo. On behalf of CyberArmy, I've got a couple of questions for you...
I remember when you first appeared on http://www.osix.net with your assembly articles that pretty much everyone loved. Personally, I thought it was awesome that someon |
| | Body | [i]Hi sefo. On behalf of CyberArmy, I've got a couple of questions for you...
I remember when you first appeared on http://www.osix.net with your assembly articles that pretty much everyone loved. Personally, I thought it was awesome that someone had found a way to write assembly tutes that beginners could really understand, and which did more than display "hello world". That said, you appeared somewhat "out of nowhere". What drew you to our community, and where did you comee from?
About the assembly articles, having never studied computers or programming at school (it's a hobby), I'm not very technical and I know nothing about the terms and expressions you people use. I just try to explain stuff in a way even I can understand.
I came out from nowhere? Well, I'm not really sure to remember when I joined Cyberarmy but I've been here for about... let's say... 7 years?
My first computer activity was (and I'm not ashamed of it) applications cracking, I think I started in 1998.
The Internet was still not very developed at that time in my area, but when I finally got my hands on a 56k modem, I got easy access to many cracking and hacking resources and especially a french hacking challenge called XOR which was based on Zebulun. This is where I met my first cyber friends (CortexLab a.k.a bubuche93 and others). I thought that challenge was very cool and I wanted more and more until I found Zebulun, where my first participation on the forum was to complain about Eliza (I think). That's how it all started.
Aside from your contributions to OSI, you've also been a great help to Sered development, for which I hear you received your most recent promotion. Could you tell us a little bit about your views on Sered in general, as well as your particular contributions?
Actually, my first brigade was CAU (led by Shepherd at that time). I worked in the Foreign Language Institute (FLI) for a few weeks (where I translated 1 IRC log into Italian - hmm, that's weird, isn't it?) Then I got sucked into the Linux world and Shepherd let me create some kind of Linux research group where I wrote my first article. It was about managing user accounts, and it is still in the KB, last time I checked. Then, like most Cyberarmy members, I was forced to learn perl, which led me to OSI. I think that's where most of you saw me for the first time.
My views on SERED? Well I haven't helped there because I thought it would bring members. I worked on it because it's a challenge and as such, I knew it would bring some fun and people would learn interesting stuff. It was just for fun and there was no ideology behind it. It's still in development and we hope to be adding more levels in the future (including easier levels).
I personally hope SERED will become an important part in CA's future.
As for what I did there, it was just creating an original challenge which took me 2 weeks of hard work plus several hours of debugging and maintainance with the help of booto, who did an excellent job in integrating that level into the system! (in case you're wondering, it's a reversing level...).
Okay, what I'm really curious about is this. You're a fairly recent (compared to some people) member, and yet you're already a Kernel, the X/O of Long-term Projects and Research, and have done heavy work on Sered development. Now, assuming you eat and sleep, where do you find the time?
As think12 would say, I'm good at multitasking.It doesn't require much time actually. If you are at work and have Internet access, it's easy to open a new window and see what's going on in CA from time to time.
Much as some of us like to deny it, I honestly believe that most of us have some kind of life outside of CyberArmy. I mean, not being logged in doesn't necessarily mean that we're eating or sleeping. What about you? Do you have kids? Do you collect stamps? Do you like broccoli? Give us a little story here =).
I used to study international trade and foreign languages at university and I'm sure you all know how much free time you can have as a student. It can even be boring sometimes!
So I had plenty of time for friends, family, sports (I've played rugby for 5 years - this is not where I met Goldfish) and I also used to go to the cinema 4 times a week. A simple student life...
Then I went to study and work in Japan for 2 years (with no or very little activity in Cyberarmy or on the Internet in general). 2 years without a regular access to a computer was pretty nice actually, I miss it!
But in the end I had to go back to France and find a job. As you may know, we don't see the words 'France' and 'job' in the same sentence very often. So after a 5 month unemployment period I finally found a job in London as a C# developer (don't ask me how I found it and how I got accepted...). This is where I am now, but that's just a temporary thing you know. I expect to be moving to Asia (China or Japan) in the next few months, maybe weeks?
PS: I'm also doing translations for Japanese animes (not that I'm an 'otaku', but it helps me keep a good level in Japanese) and I'm also part of a French reverse engineering group.
Going back a little to your current brigade status, what are you up to these days in LTPR? I mean yeah, "it's classified", I know, but come on, surely there's a little thing or two you can tell us?
Hahaha, no, there won't be anything classified from me. If it happens that something could be too 'dangerous' for you people, then I'll put it on osix.net where it will be freely available, or I'll just keep it for me and exploit you all!
I think Flixst is going to write something about the new status of LTPR soon, so what I can tell you for the moment is that I didn't want to join SOS at first. It's just that my friend Flixst got the opportunity to take over the group and has some good plans for the future. Having 1 or 2 projects in mind, I thought I would give it a try and after what I said about the brigade I thought it was not a bad idea to give some of my time there. For the moment we are in the process of 'restructuring' the brigade. 'Restructuring' is a big word, I mean, making some changes in Cyberarmy is not the easiest of things even if the situation is desperate... So I guess the best thing to do is to go step by step and try not to hurt anybody or get banned.
I see that you're also working on the OSIX Projects System. I was curious about this one: what's its purpose? From the little blurb on the project page it looks like it'll pretty much be a mini-SourceForge. Is this what you're aiming at? Or do you have a more specialized plan for it (say, CyberArmy projects and the like)?
Ah well... I'm not really 'working' on the project. I'm just showing support.
I think you know everything about it. As you said, we hope to have a 'mini-sourceforge', which was actually the first purpose of the brigade. I think this kind of project has been tried in the past and failed because of the lack of participation and ideas. But now that we have some experience and a good member base, I'm sure we can get some interesting stuff there.
Now that you speak of 'specialized plans' for it, I remember a discussion concerning a potential user interface to use this OSIX project system directly from Cyberarmy... But it's classified! (hint: you will have to bug Goldfish or SAJChurchey about it)
You've recently "returned" to CyberArmy. If I may ask, what's the story behind this?
Well, there's nothing important really. After criticizing SOS and the state of CA in general, I got involved in SERED which got me promoted. Most people didn't like to see me rewarded after what I said...etc. So I just left, because, regardless of what people say, I DO try to make things better with the resources I have and I don't like people insulting me when they don't know what I do.
I just took 2 or 3 months off CA (it was meant to be definitive though) and to be honest that was great! No politics, no try-to-be-friendly-with-someone-to-get-what-you-want...etc. Then I got some echoes of what was happening there. SERED was doing well, /projects was being released and Adtrace got removed from CAU and replaced by Ikioi. (which is a good thing to me)
Given the fact that you did return, you must have strong feelings about CyberArmy. What do you think about it, and where do you see it going? What role do you see yourself playing?
I see myself as the new Commander In Chief in April 2006. On that day I will remove all the brigades and demote all those who don't deserve their rank and finally create a new rank system based on skills. On that day we will be able to have fun and welcome new members again!
More seriously, I'll use ToTaL's words here because his english is a lot better than mine and he's a lot more diplomatic too:
- "This place is full of people trying to play soldier that take it too damn seriously"
- "There's too many people here that don't like taking chances, this place is going to amount to nothing with the current attitude of most staff/administration members"
- "Come on let's put some fun back in CA"
On second thought I'm not sure if this is politically correct, but I'll leave it like that.
That's exactly what I think! This community has a HUGE potential but it's all wasted by that 'propriety' attitude and above all, by the lack of reactivity. I said that already on some forum, but we need DECISIONS to be made!
I preferred CA back in the Zebulun days, but I do like the brigade system too. So for Christ sake, give Sered a little more power and let our staff members take some holidays!
Finally, I know this has been discussed at great length on the forums, but what do you think of CyberArmy's new background?
It's crap!
I mean... come on, if you really want to attract interesting people and affiliates, putting a camo background on the site is not the most clever thing to do. The name of the site itself doesn't help, so no need to add a U.S.Army-rules-you-all touch to it.
I read recently a message by Rose saying that a government organization rejected an affiliation request because the name 'Cyberarmy' was not the most appealing name for an online community... but that's another story...
Thanks a lot for your time,
Cyben |
|
This article was imported from zZine. (original author: Cyben)
There are no replies to this post yet.
|